In February 2016, the HSE published details of its new ‘Helping Great Britain work well Strategy’. In March 2016, it added further information to its website and published documents that provide more detailed plans. The HSE has been quick to point out that the health and safety standards in Great Britain are second to none. However, it has stated that there is always room for improvement in respect of the management of work related to ill health. The total lost days of sickness is costing the economy £9 billion a year.

The HSE is planning to adopt a more helpful and business friendly approach. This is being delivered through advice and guidance rather than enforcement. It has new guidance, case studies etc. which are designed to help businesses identify the best way of keeping their workforce and others fit and healthy.

The three government bodies that set the environment and energy agenda have given a few clues as to what is set out in the new 2016-2020 Environmental Policy. The plans are designed to set out key policy objectives for the period 2015-2020 and give an insight into how departmental budget cuts, announced in the 2015 Autumn Statement are likely to be implemented.The Department for Environmental, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) promises to “deliver a strong economy and health environment” through 6 fairly high level objectives. These include:-

- Creating a cleaner, healthier environment.

- A world-class food and farming sector.

- A thriving rural economy.

- Better protection against floods.

- Delivering on time and budget, and

- Delivering efficiency.

Defra promises a new approach to tackling waste crime by making use of £20 million from a reform of the Landfill Communities Fund. The details are yet to be released.

Climate Change

The Department of Energy & Climate Change is prioritising energy security, keeping bills low, decarbonisation (focussing on reducing emissions across homes) and building an “energy legacy”.

There are plenty of details on large-scale energy infrastructure projects but less on businesses saving energy. However, plans to promise to develop a renewed strategy for renewable heat and the government’s response to the recent business energy efficiency consultation was published in the 2016 budget.

Transport

The Department for Transport says it will focus on local air quality and throw all its weight behind the use of ultra-low emission vehicles (especially in cities). Congestion charging and low emission zones, which ban the most polluting vehicles from entering certain zones will be further promoted.

In March 2016, the government changed the levels of the plug in car grants. To encourage drivers away from diesel and petrol vehicles and into a plug in or hybrid, the government are offering subsidies. Under the previous scheme a flat rate of £5,000 was on offer. Fortunately, the government has not ditched the deal completely but has made significant changes to it.

Rather than a flat rate applying to all vehicles, 3 categories have been introduced:-

- Category 1 – CO2 emissions of less than 50g/km and a zero emissions range of at least 70 miles.

- Category 2 – CO2 emissions of less than 50g/km and a zero emissions range of between 10 and 69 miles.

- Category 3 – CO2 emissions of 50g/km to 75g/km and a zero emissions range of at least 20 miles.

The amounts on offer has changed, the grants have been cut from £5,000 to £4,500 for Category 1 vehicles and £2,500 for Category 2 and 3 vehicles. The justification for doing this is there is only a certain amount of money available for these schemes and what there is is being spread as far as possible. These grant levels will be maintained until March 2017 or until a set number of grants have been provided. It is willing to give out 85,000 grants, however the bad news is that it is counting the 51,000 that were handed out under the previous scheme. This means that there are still 34,000 available and considering the volume of qualifying car sales, the money should last until the March 2017 deadline.

Remember, before buying such a vehicle do your sums as although the running costs are likely to be better the purchase price (even with the grant) will be higher compared to diesel models.

Back in November 2013, R was driving a fork lift truck at a scrap yard. A labourer was assisting him in loading scrap cars into a shipping container in readiness to be exported. He was standing on the forks of the truck and in the process the labourer’s left arm became stuck in the mast mechanism. Three fire crews, a specialist major rescue unit, 2 air ambulances, a medical team from Manchester Royal Infirmary and 3 ambulance crews were called to help. It took more than 2 hours to release R and he unfortunately sustained sever crush injuries and permanent nerve damage. He was still receiving treatment over 2 years later and has been unable to work.

The company initially failed to report the accident under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR). It was some 3 months later when HSE inspectors discovered the worker had been instructed to stand on the forks. The company pleaded guilty to breaches of Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and Regulation 4 of RIDDOR. It was also guilty to breaching health and safety law and handed a 6 month suspension sentence and ordered to pay costs.

On 1 April 2016, the government announced changes to hazardous waste registration and consignment notes came into effect.

Under the previous requirements, a business that produced more than 500kg of hazardous waste had to be registered with the Environment Agency (EA). From 1 April this has been dropped.

If you have a current registration, then you do not need to do anything. When it automatically runs out it will not be renewed. (These changes only apply to premises in England.)

Under the old system, businesses had to put their premises registration number on consignment notes (which are documents that are used to record the waste transfer transaction). However, now the registration process has been dropped. This process is no longer required.

Under the previous regime, businesses that do not have a registration number (those which only produce relatively small amounts of hazardous waste) marked the consignment note with “EXEMPT”. They are no longer able to do this.

From 1 April 2016, all businesses must use the first 6 letters of their business name. This should be followed by 5 numbers of the producer’s choosing. Guidance produced by the EA makes is clear that all businesses must start using this new system from 1 April 2016. Therefore, do not continue to use pre-printed forms that feature your registration number rather than your business name.

Back in October 2015, the introduction of sentencing guidelines for environmental penalties meant that it was only a matter of time before companies were found guilty of breaching the law and that these companies would be hit hard.

A water utilities company was fined £1 million following a guilty plea to two pollution offences. The damage was caused when polluting matter was discharged from a sewage treatment works into the Grand Union Canal.

The judge stated that the time had come for sentences for environmental offences to be “sufficiently severe to have a significant impact on the organisation’s finances”.

Although the fine of £1 million can hardly be described as ‘light’ the penalty was less than it could have been. By pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity and co-operating in the investigation, the company in question managed to keep the fine as low as possible.

Small businesses will not be hit with £1 million fines but penalties will be large enough to have an impact. The Court of Appeal has stated that fines for the most serious offences could be equivalent to “100% of a company’s pre-tax net profits”. In other words the courts want businesses to take managing environmental issues such as pollution prevention extremely seriously.

Many businesses have started producing annual reports detailing their progress on a range of environmental parameters eg. carbon emissions, recycling, waste generation, energy, water and using renewable energy.

However, in a number of instances more effort has been put into the presentation than the fact finding. One study of 4000 reports found them littered with inaccurate data and gaps with one company stating that it had a carbon footprint four times bigger than that of the world itself. Obviously you need to get your facts right otherwise somebody will shoot them down.

No one will want to rummage through a 50 page document on recycling, road miles and renewable energy and also printing the document is not exactly the greenest move. Remember any documentation can be available digitally. Keep things short and simple to progress recycling and energy use each year. Always make sure you promote your company’s good side and highlight reductions in energy use and the amount of waste sent to landfill.